


step two: failed

by wekeepeachotherhuman



Series: Fake Dating [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3219908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wekeepeachotherhuman/pseuds/wekeepeachotherhuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four months ago, Natasha and Sam threw their tragically single friends, Steve and Bucky, on a blind date, just for the hell of it. To get back at them, Steve and Bucky forged a plan. </p>
<p>Step One: fake a relationship.<br/>Step Two: have a horrific break-up to teach them not to put single people on a date simply because they're single. </p>
<p>Step one was a flying success. Step two, though. That, well, that hasn't happened yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	step two: failed

**Author's Note:**

> This won't necessarily become a long fic, but it will probably be a sort of universe that I keep adding to, in no particular order.
> 
> You can follow my [tumblr](http://supernovastiel.tumblr.com) for updates/headcanons.

Bucky’s been over at Steve’s place for a few days in a row now. They’ve been doing that a lot recently. Bucky works a lot. He’s got two jobs and one of them is just around the corner from Steve’s apartment on the Lower East Side, so Bucky’ll stay here on the nights that he works early. Or at least that’s how Bucky had explained it. In that nervous, stammery way he gets only around Steve. 

He’s falling asleep on the couch with _Breaking Bad_ re-runs playing on the television. And Steve’s sitting at the table, his sketchbook in front of him, with his reflex thought being COMMAND-Z whenever he makes a mistake so he should probably be thinking about going to sleep too. But he wants to finish up this sketch. Bucky makes a small noise as he wiggles deeper into the cushions, his arms crossed over his chest and brow furrowed. 

Steve stops drawing and he looks out at Bucky. He rests his chin in his hand and just watches. 

“Buck,” he calls. Bucky doesn’t respond. 

Steve likes Bucky. More than he’d expected to. Before Sam had introduced Steve to Bucky, he had described him as a dark hipster with a man-bun and Steve had looked introspectively at himself: his blond hair, quiet disposition, and straight-up nerdiness, and wondered where the hell Sam had gotten the notion that they might actually like each other. 

Bucky had known Sam’s friend, Natasha for a few years before Sam and Nat decided he and Steve should be introduced. And when Nat had told him that she’d set him up on a blind date with a friend of a friend, sure, he’d been a little apprehensive because a graphic designer, social media guru? Really? About the only thing Bucky thought they might have in common was that they were both single. And both pretty bisexual. And that was rarely enough. 

But they like each other. They really like each other. 

Originally, the plan had been this: pretend that everything went well and fake-date. Fake-break up and make both Sam and Nat as uncomfortable about it as humanly possible to make them stop setting them each on blind dates. Don’t they understand that blind dates never work? 

But again, the problem remains: they really like each other. 

Or at least Steve really likes Bucky. 

“Bucky,” he says again. He drops his pencil down onto his sketchbook and leans back in his seat. His back aches from hanging over the table and his arm feels tired as hell. He takes a deep breath and there’s a slight rattle in his chest. From the living room, Bucky makes another noise and then he props up on his elbows. His hair is a mess and he squints over at Steve. Steve smiles and he forgets about the rattle in his chest. 

“How long was I out?” Bucky asks. 

“Well, while you fell asleep, Walt really broke bad and Jesse shaved his head,” Steve answers. Bucky turns back to the television and then laughs tiredly. 

“Jesus. Some company I am,” he mutters. He swings his legs over the side of the couch so his feet are on the floor. He rubs his forehead and keeps his elbows on his knees. 

“I don’t mind,” Steve says. “I’ve done a lot of work.”

Bucky looks over his shoulder at Steve and then stands up. He shuffles over. He stretches his arms up over his head, just far enough that his shirt rides up and shows an inch of stomach just above his sweat pants. 

“Can I see?” he asks as he gets closer. He sits down at the table opposite Steve and cranes his neck to look at the sketchbook. 

“Yeah,” Steve stammers. “It’s not… It’s not finished, or anything.”

“It’s good,” Bucky says. 

Steve looks up at him and Bucky’s eyes are still glued to the page, but he seems so genuine and earnest. “Thanks,” he mumbles and he really, really means it. 

Bucky pushes his chair away from the table and goes to the fridge. He opens it and searches for some orange juice. Anybody else, Steve might have made a sarcastic remark about permission and manners, but Bucky does it so nonchalantly that nothing really seems wrong with it. It just seems normal. Bucky takes out the carton and pours himself a glass, and then he pours one for Steve and places it in front of him and then sits back down. 

“So I’m seeing Nat tomorrow,” Bucky says before he takes a long gulp. 

“Oh?” Steve asks. 

“Anything I should tell her?” he asks with a smile. “Plant the seed of our impending nasty break-up?”

Steve laughs and ignores the strange feeling in his throat. “Yeah, I mean, if you want to.” He shrugs and when he looks up at Bucky, Bucky is just watching him. “I mean, we have kept this up for a while now.” Bucky smiles like he knows something. 

“Yeah,” he says. “It might hit home a little more if we hold out a little longer.”

“Yeah,” Steve says and he smiles. 

Bucky polishes off his orange juice and stands to put his glass in the sink. 

“I’m gonna head to bed. You coming?” he asks. He heads towards the bedroom even before Steve can answer. 

“Yeah,” Steve says anyway. He stands and follows Bucky. 

They’ve slept in the same bed every night that Bucky stays over since the beginning. It’s just something that they don’t really question. One night when Bucky had had one drink too many, he’d told Steve that he always slept better with somebody next to him. And Steve, well, Steve didn’t mind having someone around who would grab him a glass of water in the middle of the night when he got to coughing. 

Steve climbs into bed next to Bucky after he’s turned the light off. Bucky groans as he rolls around to get comfortable. 

“Sorry I haven’t been much of a chatterbox,” Bucky mumbles into the pillow. 

“It’s okay, Buck,” Steve says as he pulls the blankets up to his chest. “You’re exhausted, I get it.”

“Mhmm,” Bucky says and his breathing changes almost immediately. 

Steve laughs to himself and closes his eyes. 

For weeks, this plan had been going so well. Fake-dating had been so much easier than Steve had anticipated. Bucky made it easy. Fake-breaking up on the other hand, it feels so hard. 

When Steve wakes up, Bucky’s gone. He sits up and there’s a post-it note sitting on the bedside table. 

_see you tonight, fake-boyfriend. (this is still fake, right?)_


End file.
